The False-Woke Hypocrisy of Barnes & Noble is a Bridge Too Far
Commercialism is one thing, but this…
I stumbled across a tweet today…or maybe it was a tweet shared on Facebook, or a TikTok that was tweeted and then shared on Facebook, who can tell anymore…that managed to crystallize in one image everything that is wrong with America today. That may seem like a bold statement, but I said what I said and I’m sticking to it. Here’s the image:
It’s some obvious shade thrown at J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter Wizarding World series and the one-time Queen of All Media that her subjects now love to hate. I found the original tweet, and the comments were closer to a 50/50 split on “love her/hate her” than I expected. And everyone on both sides has a right to their opinion (on anything and everything), just as Rowling has a right to hers. If you’re reading this, you’re either in a country that protects freedom of speech or you were already breaking the law by being here and a children’s book author is the least of your worries.
Opinions are one thing; cancel culture is another, and I am as fed up with the woke nonsense as anybody. If you’re going to start cancelling every artist with “problematic” views or behavior, say goodbye to all punk rock, all rap, and definitely all decent country (at least the country written before 1990). But this is not a rant about thin-skinned woke warriors; this is about Barnes & Noble, the perpetrators of the display that triggered the image. In a word, they suck.
It hurts me to write that, both as a reader and as a former bookstore owner, but there is no other word for it. Let’s be perfectly clear about this: Barnes & Noble is not taking a principled stand on anything here. They are simply capitalizing on the emotions of people, many of whom aren’t old enough yet to have had those emotions fully develop, to sell books. They are selling books in the most cynical, disgusting way a bookstore possibly could: with the implied censorship of an author and her work. (They are also implying that the authors on that table are in no way “problematic,” which is a dangerous thing to assume in our current climate).
This would be cynical and disgusting if they were doing it after removing all of the Harry Potter books from their stores because they are offended that Rowling dared express her opinion on an issue, given that for decades now they have raked in piles of cash from all things Potter-related. There were literally years where the release of a Harry Potter book meant the difference between a bookstore ending the year in the red or in the black. It moves into the realm of insufferable hypocrisy (and crass commercialism) when you realize that on the other side of the store, away from this clever little display table, are four full sections of Harry Potter books, games, and assorted doodads, all available at the full retail price.
This little stunt by B&N has only furthered the cause of woke ridiculousness at a time when we already have more than any normal human can stand. Back in 2011, I said more than once that I wished Barnes & Noble had gone bankrupt instead of Borders. They’ve done nothing in the last decade to change my mind, and if they have the audacity to do a Banned Books Week display next year, I may just riot. This Christmas, shop indie bookstores or shop Amazon (I just threw up in my mouth a little typing that), but do not give a dime to B&N.
